The game between Seidou and Yakushi begins!
What They Say:
“Reliable Teammates”
I want to pitch to that mitt again… A meeting with catcher Kazuya Miyuki changed the 15-year-old Eijun Sawamura’s life. He said goodbye to all his friends and knocked upon the door of Seidou, a prestigious baseball school, intent on testing his own strength. There, he met many proud baseball players who were betting everything on the sport! A classic tale, yet new and fresh. All the emotion and excitement of the popular baseball manga is at last coming to television in the form of an anime!
The Review: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Furuya, Eijun, Kawakami, and Tanba have something to prove against Yakushi’s lead-off hitter, Raichi. The power hitter’s dad and coach thinks the only pitcher worth anything left in the tournament is Inashiro’s ace and southpaw, Mei Narumiya, the kid with the killer changeup.
Furuya’s on the mound for the first three innings to prove that the coach is wrong. But after Tanba’s rival Manaka of Ichidai was taken down, who knows. Furuya’s first ball goes high for a ball, an intimidation tactic, hopefully. The forkball goes low for a second ball, but Raichi isn’t fazed. The third ball is a high fastball that goes deep and hits the fence, but no home run. Raichi slides into first because I guess he can’t run bases that well.
No strikes against Raichi, but the first pitch against the next batter is a swinging strike at Furuya’s splitter. Another high fastball gets hit just past the third base line and Raichi makes it home. Yakushi had a plan all along for Furuya’s high fastballs. Luckily, the other batters seem to only be able to hit doubles…
Kazuya sees a steal coming on the third batter and brings his glove low enough to catch it quickly on Furuya’s breaking ball. The ball just makes it to second on an almost perfect steal. With that, it’s the first out and Seidou’s calmed down a little.
In the bottom of the third, Isashiki hits a long ball to the fences just like Raichi and the game is tied. Tetsuya lines out to Raichi, but Masuko hits the long ball and gets two more runs in. Kazuya, up sixth, hits straight to the pitcher. He still can’t hit without men on base.
In quick succession, Furuya’s back on the mound in the top of the second. Kazuya calls for more control from Furuya at the cost of his speed and catches the batter looking on a strike. The next ball goes to first and Furuya’s there to cover as Tetsuya gets the ball.
In Summary:
The formerly horrifying Yakushi is at least being controlled by Seidou for now. Furuya has the second- and third-years behind him and Kazuya catching, which makes it easy for him to just focus on throwing baseballs. All that’s left is getting through the next seven innings…
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: Radeon 7850, 24” Dell UltraSharp U2410 set at 1920 x 1200, Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II
